Heretofore it has been proposed to provide a reconfigurable remote control device and programmable functions for such a remote control device which will enable one to learn, store and retransmit infrared codes that are emitted from the remote control device for a remotely controlled apparatus, such as a television.
For example, in the Welles II U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,887 and the Ehlers U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,848, there is disclosed a reconfigurable remote control device which has the ability to learn, store and repeat remote control codes from any other infrared transmitter. Such a reconfigurable remote control transmitter device includes an infrared receiver, a microprocessor, a non-volatile random access memory (RAM), a scratch pad random access memory, and an infrared transmitter.
According to the teachings of the Ehlers patent, the infrared signals received by the remote control device are in bursts of pulses and the device counts the number of pulses in each burst as well as the time duration of each pause in a transmission between bursts.
The Darbee et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,810, of which this application is a Continuation-in-Part, discloses a universal remote control device having terminals for enabling code data to be supplied from outside the device through the terminals and a CPU to a RAM or ROM in the device.
Hand held remote controls of necessity have a finite number of keys and, because of the diversity of possible target devices, cannot offer a dedicated key for every possible function or feature.
Accordingly, dedicated keys are generally only provided for those functions which are common to almost all devices (e.g. Power, Volume, Channel Up/Down, etc.).
One approach to allowing a customer access to those special functions which are unique to his particular brand of remote control device (e.g. tracking or color adjustment, picture-in-picture, etc.) is to provide, in addition to the "standard" keys, a number of generic keys labeled, for example, A, B, C, D, etc. together with a booklet which lists, by brand and model, what functions are available on those keys as disclosed in the Darbee et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,810.
The disadvantage of this method is that the number of keys is still quite limited, so the manufacturer of the universal remote control device usually has to select by brand and model which special functions are or are not offered.
Another approach is to provide a special key which, when pressed, allows a multi-key entry sequence to access any one of a large library of special functions. For example, pressing an "A" key followed by two digits (A-n-n) would provide access to up to 100 special, or "extended" functions. The disadvantage of this method is that it requires the user of the device to press the standard keys or pushbuttons multiple times in order to access any of these extended functions.
As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the remote control device of the present invention overcomes the foregoing disadvantages by including, in the operating program for the remote control device, executable programs or routines which permit the individual user to assign any desired function to almost any key on the keypad. The user is thus able to individually customize his particular device so that his most frequently accessed functions are single keystrokes and/or in the most convenient locations on the keypad.
The executable routines or programs also allow the user to reassign keys "across devices". For example, if a user plays his TV sound through a stereo amplifier, he may wish to reassign the "MUTE" key such that, when his remote control device is switched to TV mode, the mute signal sent in response to the button is that of the stereo amplifier, not that of the TV.